Evernote Quietly Disappeared From an Anti-Surveillance Lobbying Group's Website (techcrunch.com) 12
An anonymous reader shares a report: In 2013, eight tech companies were accused of funneling their users' data to the U.S. National Security Agency under the so-called PRISM program, according to highly classified government documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Six months later, the tech companies formed a coalition under the name Reform Government Surveillance, which as the name would suggest was to lobby lawmakers for reforms to government surveillance laws. The idea was simple enough: to call on lawmakers to limit surveillance to targeted threats rather than conduct a dragnet collection of Americans' private data, provide greater oversight and allow companies to be more transparent about the kinds of secret orders for user data that they receive.
Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo and AOL were the founding members of Reform Government Surveillance, or RGS, and over the years added Amazon, Dropbox, Evernote, Snap and Zoom as members. But then sometime in June 2019, Evernote quietly disappeared from the RGS website without warning. What's even more strange is that nobody noticed for two years, not even Evernote. "We hadn't realized our logo had been removed from the Reform Government Surveillance website," said an Evernote spokesperson, when reached for comment by TechCrunch. "We are still members."
Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo and AOL were the founding members of Reform Government Surveillance, or RGS, and over the years added Amazon, Dropbox, Evernote, Snap and Zoom as members. But then sometime in June 2019, Evernote quietly disappeared from the RGS website without warning. What's even more strange is that nobody noticed for two years, not even Evernote. "We hadn't realized our logo had been removed from the Reform Government Surveillance website," said an Evernote spokesperson, when reached for comment by TechCrunch. "We are still members."
maybe evernote is spyware (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
that records keystrokes and sends them to government spooks
Be careful. You're about ready to step all over patents held by Microsoft, creators of Telemetry OS.
TL; DR - If you assume Evernote is the only one, take a number and get in line.
No one noticed something no one really looks at? (Score:3)
What's even more strange is that nobody noticed for two years, not even Evernote.
So no one noticed. Was someone tasked with checking the RGS website? They were still actually members so why is this "news"?
On my employee self-evaluation for the "Where do you see yourself in five years?" question (a question I hate) I wrote, "The International Space Station" every year for five years. No one noticed. (I worked for a company that didn't have anything to do with that...) I finally got a new manager who noticed, thought it was funny and edited it out -- so *his* manager wouldn't possibly see it...
Re: (Score:2)
So no one noticed. Was someone tasked with checking the RGS website?
No one is "tasked" with anything. It's just another aimless nonprofit and its purpose is to employ some select family members of elites with cushy 250k no show chairperson and vice chairperson jobs. One or two peons maintain the website from their bedrooms.
Um, no one cared? (Score:3)
No one noticed it because no one visited the site, or paid attention to who was a member or not.
Re:Um, no one cared? (Score:4, Insightful)
No one noticed it because no one visited the site, or paid attention to who was a member or not.
This entire concept (RGS) is nothing but window dressing, since there's a good chance every company knew damn well it was being used and abused by intelligence agencies. Why? Because they agreed to it in private. And likely for profit.
Only when public sentiment had temporarily soured (the PRISM leaks) did they change their tune. And now today, you can arrogantly run PRISM out in the open, advertised on the front page. No one gives a shit anymore. And even if they did, the FUCK are you going to do about it, powerless do-nothing citizen?
The answer is nothing, and THEY know it.
Have any surveillance laws, actually been "reformed", almost a decade later?
Yeah. I didn't think so.
Re: (Score:2)
Have any surveillance laws, actually been "reformed", almost a decade later?
Wheels turn slowly. And while some things will indeed never change, other things move so slowly that it is hard to perceive that they're moving at all.
Section 215 of the PATRIOT ACT was allowed to expire this year. I know it's not enough, but it is something.
But (perhaps much) more importantly, it's the surveillance laws/protocols/agreements/etc. outside the United States that have changed that make the most difference. Americans are still very much at risk, but the rest of the world is better off.
This just in: (Score:3)
No one was around to witness it.
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Why use evernote? (Score:2)
Why use ANY of these things for privacy?
Generally, all of these groups maintain the power to read your data the moment they want to. While one hopes they would do so when compelled by a search warrant, the existence of secret warrants served by judges that no one can know about (and who only rarely ever say no, regardless of evidence) puts that in some degree of doubt. And there's plenty of other reasons to distrust even a reasonably privacy-focused group like Apple (to say nothing of all the others liste
Got this weird email yesterday from Evernote (Score:1)
Evernote Basic is changing. And change is good.
Hello,
As Evernote continues to improve our products and services, we’re also making it easier to understand which subscription plan is right for what you want to accomplish. So we’re changing our lineup of plans to offer more choice and to help Evernote fit better with the way you work.
How do these changes affect me?
In the coming weeks, here’s what you can expect:
Your Evernote Basic plan will get a new name (we
Re: (Score:2)
Got a similar mail for my account, which is Premium: "We’re upgrading your plan, but not your price". "We’ll upgrade you into a new, more powerful Evernote plan at the same price you’re paying now."."Your updated plan will also include brand new features to help you stay on top of your day-to-day.". Which I'm guessing has something to do with Tasks - an early access feature I have no intent of using or care about, I have things like this elsewhere - and I certainly don't need it as a check